In a matter of one and a half hours in the early hours of Sunday morning, a total of 92 cars and bikes were burnt in five housing societies and a Pizza outlet at Sinhagad Road. These included 77 two wheelers, 8 four wheelers and 7 cycles. The cause for the incident is being investigated even as CCTV footage has captured a photo of an unidentified man whose presence at all the spots appears suspicious.
Each of these housing societies and pizza outlet are located within a five km stretch in the Sinhagad area. Fires in parking lots of the housing societies cause widespread panic among residents, many of whom were fast asleep only to be woken up to the smell of smoke that engulfed passages and staircases while fire tenders rushed to the spot to douse the flames.
Even as investigations are underway, CCTV footage shows a well built man cutting the fuel pipes of vehicles in parking lots and setting them on fire while the fire quickly spread to engulf other vehicles in the vicinity. The man could have selected housing societies at random while 29 Dominos Pizza delivery vehicles which were parked in front of the outlet were also torched.
The parking lot of sixth society which was also torched. Photo – Shyam Sonar / Times of India.The security guard on duty at the pizza outlet appears to have been asleep when the fire broke out. Besides two wheelers at the pizza outlet, vehicles parked at Suryanagari housing society, Swaminarayan housing society, Akshay Glory society, Avdhoot Arcade society and Ram Heights society were also set ablaze.
Though similar incidents of vehicles being set ablaze in Pune’s Kothrud, Dhankawdi and Pimpri-Chinchwad area have been reported in the past, Sundays incident saw the most number of vehicles completely damaged.
The suspect, who is believed to be a well built 30 year old.Images via TimesofIndia.com
